Road Trip:Tempesta in Connecticut

Lisa Terry and Emlyn Ngai lead a room of 70 school-age Community Division students in Bach’s Double Concerto at the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut.

October saw Tempesta di Mare on the road to Connecticut — twice! First, Emlyn, Lisa, Gwyn and Richard made the trip to Hartford, where they taught masterclasses and workshops at the Hartt School of Music.

Gwyn’s Friday masterclass for the Conservatory flute students focused on music by Telemann and Bach. She used Handel sonatas to help teenage flutists from the Community Division improvise their own ornaments in a second session on Saturday. Richard played Bach on his lute for the guitar department before coaching his Conservatory masterclass and then worked with Community Division guitarists on their own solo repertoire.

The hallway traffic jam of 70 exiting children toting violins, violas, cellos, basses and bows afterwards was a sight to see…

Emlyn and Lisa joined forces for two workshop sessions for string players, helping Conservatory students to expand their vocabulary of baroque-style bow strokes and gestures on Friday and then reprising these concepts on Saturday for an enthusiastic group of 70 Community Division string students of all ages. Imagine those eager school-age children playing the Bach Double Concerto together in one room. Such a joy!

The hallway traffic jam of 70 exiting children toting violins, violas, cellos, basses and bows afterwards was a sight to see, and challenged the Tempesta quartet to escape in time for for their final event of the weekend: a performance of Venice to Leipzig at the Wapping Church — a picturebook New England country church — in nearby South Windsor.

A week later, Tempesta’s full orchestra boarded a charter bus in South Philly and returned to open the Hartt’s School renowned Garmany Series with Brandenburg 4 & Friends. The concert sold out — a rare occurrance for the Garmany series — and received enthusiastic responses from the audience and critics alike.

Tempesta di Mare performing on the Garmany Concert Series at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford.

“In addition to being an entertaining and well-planned evening of music, Tempesta di Mare succeeded in teaching us to hear the fourth Brandenburg concerto in new ways. They brought a sense of inspired and enlightened discourse to the music, and the ease and fluidity in which they performed contrasted the sharp edges and lightening quick changes of articulation and phrasing in which the ensemble specializes.” (Hartford Courant, Oct 20.) Read the full review at the Hartford Courant.

These “runout” performances of our Philadelphia Concert Series productions are an exciting, new addition to Tempesta’s regular activities. We love playing our programs more than just twice, and we are able to offer the concerts to presenters at an affordable price. If you know of a concert series within driving distance of Philadelphia that may want to host one of these performances, please be in touch with Tempesta’s Managing Director, Ulrike Shapiro.

These “runout” performances of our Philadelphia Concert Series productions are an exciting, new addition to Tempesta’s regular activities.